The Samsung GalaxyS22 is a small phone with a few shortcomings, but there's lots to like at its asking price.
Samsung Galaxy S22 MSRP $799.00 Score Details “The Galaxy S22 is a fairly capable phone that should be on top of your Android phone buying list thanks to its handy build, top-notch performance, capable cameras, and long-term software update policy.” Pros Cons Editor’s note: The Samsung Galaxy S23 and Galaxy S23 Ultra are now official, so you may want to hold off …
But it’s not just about the looks. The build quality is top-notch as well. Samsung has eschewed the Galaxy S21’s plastic rear panel in favor of a glass sheet that is protected by a layer of Gorilla Glass Victus on top. After having used the device for over three weeks without any protective cover, I couldn’t find any scuff marks on the rear panel. However, the display was another story. After a few days of use, it had visible signs of minor scraping all across.
Samsung has also made a few compromises to achieve that relatively compact form factor. The 3.5mm headphone jack is again a no-show, as is the microSD card slot for storage expansion. And yes, the camera bump still makes the phone wobble when it’s lying on a flat surface. The ultrawide camera was no different, retaining color uniformity against scenes captured by the main camera. However, one area where it faltered was the warping, especially with linear elements in the image. Take a look at the indoor shot clicked by the Galaxy S22 and its Ultra variant , both of which employ the same ultrawide camera hardware, but only one has that weird warping effect around the edges.
Of course, Samsung has also baked in a smorgasbord of camera tricks such as Single Take, portrait video, Director’s View, and Super Slow-Mo, among others. Director’s view lets you capture a scene from both the front and back, offering the convenience of using all three rear cameras. Overall, the Galaxy S22 has a very capable set of cameras that is right up there against the iPhone 13, except for the latter’s more impressive videography chops. However, the Galaxy S22 offers the added versatility of a 3x telephoto camera that produces good results in both long-range and close encounters.
But that is not to take anything away from the standard Galaxy S22. In fact, the entry-level Samsung flagship offers one of the most beautiful screens on a high-end Android phone. Viewing angles are great, sunlight legibility is also impressive, and colors simply pop out. The Natural preset in display mode retains the true colors, but it’s the slight bump in saturation offered by the Vivid mode that really brings out the best of this screen.
Software The Galaxy S22 tested for our review runs One UI 4.1 based on Android 12 with the May security patch on top. The looks are familiar, but the support for Android 12’s Material You theming is a fresh aesthetic perk. Based on your wallpaper, icons in the notifications shade and other native UI elements adjust their color accordingly, with some pleasant transparency effects in tow.
But the biggest advantage of buying the Galaxy S22 is Samsung’s promise of delivering four years of Android OS upgrades and five years of security updates at a quarterly or half-yearly cadence. That’s a year more than what Google promises for its own Pixel smartphones, and a fair bit higher than what rival Android smartphone makers from China have to offer.
The relatively inferior thermal hardware also affects the Galaxy S22’s benchmark performance when compared to the Galaxy S22 Ultra, which reached a multi-core tally of 3106 on Geekbench, while its smaller sibling could only manage a score of 2932 in our tests. I remained connected to the internet throughout the day, heavily surfed social media, used at least five communication apps, watched a few YouTube videos, and listened to music for about three hours each day over Bluetooth headphones. Even without any gaming whatsoever, the phone barely went past a day.
While playing Call of Duty: Mobile at peak graphics settings, the phone lost about 10 percent battery juice while the CPU temperature went up by 8 degrees Celcius during a 20-minute session. The game booster dashboard allows some degree of system-level optimization between performance and temperature monitoring, but it doesn’t make too much of a difference.
Our take The headline says it all — the Galaxy S22 is boringly good. It comes equipped with all the fundamental traits of a pure Android flagship. For its price, the Galaxy S22 offers reliable cameras with a neat set of cool features, a fast processor, excellent build quality and in-hand feel, and an unparalleled software update policy in the Android ecosystem.
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